


Out of Range

by whatswronglittlefellow



Category: Half-Life, Half-Life 2 - Fandom
Genre: Combine Occupation, False Identity, Gen, Relocation, Seven Hours War, Short One Shot, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatswronglittlefellow/pseuds/whatswronglittlefellow
Summary: Barney Calhoun doesn’t exist, and hasn’t for fifteen years.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Out of Range

Barney Calhoun does not exist.

At least, not according to any existing records. Pre-existing records, sure. You could look at the admission archives of the college that he got his associate’s from, or the employment records of the Research Facility he used to work at before it blew up, or heck, even his birth certificate or SSI card, before those all blew up, too.

On the ride out of Black Mesa, Barney knew what to expect — somewhat. He knew that Black Mesa was dealing with aliens and the military, and after getting nearly killed by both, he was ready to initiate his post-apocalypse plan. What he needed was a new name. That was obvious, as he was currently wanted by the military. It wasn’t like he could just waltz back into society with his Black Mesa security badge shining proudly on his chest.

Beforehand, he had a (rather one-sided) conversation with Gordon about this. They agreed that if the world were to go to sh*t, Barney would go by the name Scott Shapiro and Gordon would go by the name Michael Lynch. Or, maybe it was the other way around. It didn’t really matter, though, because Gordon disappeared for the next twenty years, and when the US&R asked for Barney’s name he panicked and said Robert Lloyd. He didn’t even know who Robert Lloyd was, if he was a real person. Maybe he was an author, or something.

Then again, it wasn’t like anyone could rush out and say “Barney! I’m so glad you survived!” either. After the Seven Hours War, Barney was almost immediately relocated to City 4. It was humid and hopeless and the skyscrapers had all been flattened, but the worst part about it was that he knew no-one there. He didn’t even have a picture of Lauren to bring with him. Her existence regretfully faded from his memory.

He saw his brother in City 9 once. He barely recognized him, he was so far away. They didn’t have a chance to talk, but he hoped that his brother was still around there somewhere, either freed from the torment or fighting on.

Sometimes he wondered what his mom was doing. Sometimes he wondered if Gordon was still alive. He pointedly did not think about it, though. He had already lost so many people. The sooner he accepted that they were dead, the sooner he could move on.

Speaking of fighting, that was what brought about the end of Robert Lloyd. Enough anti-citizen behavior and failed loyalty checks made Mr. Lloyd an ever-so-slight interest to the “benevolent overlords” of City 17. This was before the Combine really doubled down on the whole “oppressing humans” thing, but he had a creeping suspicion that increased sightings of Combine scanners around his area weren’t a coincidence. He had made up his mind that after fighting tooth and nail through the Hellhole that was Black Mesa, and dodging the death and destruction of the War, he wasn’t going to let his body just be dumped into the oily sludge of a canal or twisted into some f*cked up monster. No-way. So he adopted a new life of sewer-living.

It took Barney a couple of months in hiding to adopt a new identity. He came up with it while he was collecting the uniform from the fresh corpse of a Combine Grunt. He became Willard Straseskie that day, Combine Grunt and totally-not-a-secret agent. Nobody could tell behind the mask. They had vocoders, all the same.

Even after his demotion to the Metro Police, Barney kept up the Straseskie act. He kept telling himself his name, Barney Calhoun, to remind himself that he existed, in case any one who might know him would meet him.

It wasn’t until he met Alyx Vance that Barney Calhoun came back.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this sitting around, fully completed, so I figured why not publish it?
> 
> Thank you for reading. Stay safe. :-)


End file.
